Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sunday Bilingual News

From Driggs, Idaho

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to a new weekly communication from the Spanish-English Club! After weeks of waiting for the smiles of the Sun God, we are enjoying nice sunny days in Teton Valley. What about the weather in your location?

¡Hola! ¡Bienvenidos a una nueva comunicación del Spanish-English Club! Después de semanas esperando las sonrisas del Dios Sol, hoy estamos disfrutando un agradable día de sol en el Valle de los Tetones. ¿Cómo está el tiempo donde ustedes viven?The last few days were rich in new political initiatives. President Obama met President Calderon of Mexico with the intention to fight together against the traffic of drugs and guns. In parallel with the approach to the big neighbor of the south, the Washington Administration showed clear intentions to open a dialogue with Cuba.

Y también, durante la semana, la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos anunció el comienzo de una batalla contra las emisiones de gas invernadero.The week included more political news, but if we want to review all the details, we will fill a notebook of statements and question marks.

La semana incluyó más noticias políticas, pero si quisiéramos analizar todos los detalles, vamos a llenar un anotador de declaraciones y signos de preguntas.About the previous Sunday Bilingual News issue, we have to clarify the use of the word “Pascua”. We can use it in plural only when we talk about the Christian and Jewish celebrations together. In other cases, we have to write in singular: “Feliz Pascua de Resurrección”, “Feliz Pascua Judía”. Frequently, we say: “Felices Pascuas” because we treat Jewish and Christian communities together. If we read the Bible, we see both celebrations are related.

Measuring subjectivityMidiendo subjetividad- The week began with the echoes of the Somalia incident where US Navy SEAL snipers killed 3 pirates and liberated Captain Richard Philips of the MV Maersk Alabama container ship boarded on April 8 by a group of pirates.

- On Monday, April 13, the Obama administration announced a series of changes in US policy to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future.Questions:.What do you think of the changes in US policy about Cuba and its population?. Will be this the beginning of the end of the Castro regime?. What are the real values of the approach: civil rights, business, or strategic geopolitical maneuvering against the communism domain of the world?

- El martes 14 de abril, desde Tokio, Japón, NEC anunció el desarrollo de una nueva tecnología para extraer opiniones de datos de texto. De acuerdo con los investigadores, la nueva tecnología podría evaluar niveles de subjetividad de múltiples oraciones.Preguntas:.¿Creen que una máquina puede evaluar la subjetividad de oraciones escritas?. En vuestra opinión, ¿Es importante analizar la subjetividad de contenidos de páginas de Internet, blogs, correo electrónico, y otros documentos digitales?- Also on Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, said: “The worst is now behind us”, when the executive announced the poor results of the first 2009 quarter of the most important chip manufacturer and leading provider of microprocessors for PCs, notebooks, servers and other machines.Questions:. Do you think the worst is now behind us? Are we arriving at the end of the tunnel? Did our economic and social nightmare finish?

- El 15 de abril fue el día de declaraciones de impuesto de los contribuyentes. Mucha gente corrió a las oficinas de correo con sus declaraciones de impuestos de ingresos y sus cheques. Otros usaron medios electrónicos para enviar sus declaraciones. ¿Cuántos no enviaron nada y pidieron una extensión?- On Thursday April 16, President Obama made his first trip to Mexico and his first to Latin America to highlight and reinforce the United States’ commitment to work with Mexico on a broad range of issues, in particular concerning the traffic of drugs and guns.Questions:. Do you think the meeting between the Presidents of the United States and Mexico was only symbolic, or was a realistic step to solve complex problems?

- El jueves 16 de abril, el Presidente Obama hizo su primer viaje a México y su primero a América Latina para expresar y reforzar el compromiso de los Estados Unidos de trabajar con México un amplio rango de asuntos, y en particular en lo concerniente al tráfico de drogas y armas.Preguntas:¿Piensan ustedes que la reunión de los Presidentes de los Estados Unidos y México fue algo sólo simbólico, o fue un paso realista para resolver problemas complejos?- On Friday, April 17, at the Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, President Obama addressed the opening ceremony of the Summit of the Americas. Again in this conference, the President reiterated the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.Questions:. After this kick off, who has the ball now? What is your opinion?. Was this initiative a risky movement from the United States, or is it a risky step for Cuba?

Los japoneses siempre inventan algo nuevo en la arena tecnológica. Ellos inventaron robots, lectores de huellas dactilares, lectores y digitalizadores de rasgos de rostros humanos, digitalizadores de huellas de la palma de la mano…Now, NEC, one of the pioneers in special techniques and strange computerized math algorithms, wants to learn the subjective side of the writer of a sentence. How sad was the writer of this message? How funny is the creator of this slogan? What kind of empty brain wrote this letter? How stupid was the celebrity who addressed this speech? ...

About the Club

Spanish-English Club was brought to life in the environment of the Broward County Library between 2005-2006 thanks the initiative of different members of the Fort Lauderdale Library and volunteers.After that, Sunday Bilingual News was implemented as the communication medium for the Spanish-English Club activities.

Next, this digital newspaper grew with the previews of the class materials for the Library sessions.

Now, the Sunday Bilingual News continues growing as educational tool to help non-Spanish speakers in the bilingual experience with the analysis of weekly news and small stories, always including new vocabulary and questions. It is also good material for conversation and writing. Short sentences and new words give elements for those who want to navigate across exciting subjects.Sunday Bilingual News is a customizing tool according to the beginner's needs or the goals for advanced students. Everybody can find great value in this digital newspaper because it includes illustrative materials with geographic, historic, economic and social components.The enthusiasm of the members of the Club at Broward Library and other Non-Spanish speakers always produce new stimulus and they are the reason of this Internet blog.